Need some help with texturing

Flaringo

Me and my friend are working on our first mod. It's small, it's shit but it's a project to get us into modding. It's for the Source engine.

I'm working on some weapon models, and I just got past unwrapping it. Now I have to make a texture for the weapon, but I've got no idea how to make it look good. Can anyone point me in the direction of some tutorials, or maybe give me some tips?


This is my model:


Very basic as you can tell, nothing too bad...

And here it is textured:


Uhh... yeah. It doesn't look very good, does it?

So, for starters, how could I achieve an aluminum look? Also, how could I get rid of that seam in the middle? And then, is there anything that stands out as "OH GOD WHY DID YOU DO THAT, THAT'S SO WRONG YOU IDIOT"?

Thank yoU!

renderhjs

make it a solid fill (grayish blue or so) and then start using the gradient tools in PS. Start with that to work out the basic diffuse (you can also add some AO renders as aid) and then pic a texture that is far most consistent and not to grainy and try to blend it (using some blend mode mixes).

Whenever I start I always first render out a Blockout map a UV template and a AO or light tracer Dirtmap. Then I start with plain simple colors to get the right mood of the material. After that either painting details or finding textures that would match the material.
Sometimes I even paste in a Photo of the object or material as a guidance to get the material look I am after.

Eric Chadwick

Also these might help.
Tutorial:Hard Surface Texture Painting
PSG Art Tutorial

Flaringo

Man this is harder than I thought it would be!

Anyways, thanks for the info guys, I'll keep trying and see if I come up with something.

Titus S

Racer445 has some sick tutorials...

http://racer445.com/pages/tutorials/metal-crate-tutorial.php

Definitely look here too.

He goes over the theory on why he textures his crate the way he did, and you can find ways on faking some really cool details.

Irreal

EricChadwick wrote: »

Also these might help.
Tutorial:Hard Surface Texture Painting
PSG Art Tutorial

I remember seeing this painting tutorial a few years ago. It's brilliant. Thanks for reminding me about it.

As for the texturing of the errr grenade?... you haven't unwrapped it particularly well so I'd redo that. It looks like you've used a cylindrical projection which will only get you part of the way there and is the reason you've got some very obvious stretching. So, sort that out first. You could apply a checker texture to your model which will show you where the streching is.

Gather as much reference as you can as to the look and style of the object you are making. Once that's done pop on over to cgtextures and grab everything you think you'll need. So yeah, watch how Racer445 uses Photoshop and bascially copy everything he does because he knows what he's doing and you'll learn a shitload in the process.

[HP]

Definitely watch Racers AK tutorial! you'll learn a lot.

Flaringo

Alright, I've decided to scrap this model. I just wasn't happy with it, and I definitely rushed to the process of UV mapping it before I'd considered if the model itself looked good or not. But fear not! All your help is not in vein! I'm in the process or redoing it with more detail, and hopefully a proper UV map.

I take it the UV map shouldn't have been perfectly rectangular?

Eric Chadwick

It doesn't have to be. You generally want to reduce the amount of stretching in the UVs, so the texture isn't so hard to paint, and so it doesn't get blurry. Which means you need to add more seams/cuts in the UV.

Also you'll want to optimize your mesh. The edge loops don't have to continue all the way down the shaft. Collapse some of those edges on the shaft, so the width of the faces is similar to the width of the faces across the "head". Look at the blue balls on this page for an idea of what I'm talking about. The reason for this is to reduce vertex count of the model, because it's more performance- and memory-friendly in a game.
http://wiki.polycount.net/Face_Topology